Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(46)

“Too hard?” I asked when she started to squirm.

“No,” she breathed, biting her lip. “Just right.”

“So, what are the rules? What can we do?”

She gave me a wicked smile from down there on the pillows. “This early we can do everything. Technically, anyway. It’s just that the lady parts can sometimes feel a bit raw.”

I lightened my touch. “I don’t want to hurt you. Tell me if it’s too much.”

“You couldn’t hurt me.”

I massaged lower, over her chest, past her belly. I smoothly opened her legs and stroked her thighs, my thumbs circling higher and higher. Stephanie bit her lip and threw her head back while her inner thigh muscles began flexing instinctively.

I rolled my thumbs higher, teasing. “Is that good, honey?”

She let out a squeak and grabbed the pillow behind her head. “Yes,” she gasped.

I slipped both thumbs inside her with ease. Damn, I’d heard about these pregnancy hormones but she was ready to come already. I smiled and withdrew, grazing her entrance with just the tips of my thumbs.

That drove her wild. She bucked her hips and screwed her eyes up tight as she arched her body toward me desperately.

“Just f*ck me,” she begged.

“Damn, what a filthy mouth on my sweet bride.”

She glared. “I’ll give you a f*cking filthy mouth.”

This was fun. “I don’t know Steph, maybe we should save it for the wedding night.”

She sat up on her elbows, sputtering. “What are you talking about? We’ve already f*cked like a thousand times.”

“I just don’t want to deplete the mystery.”

Stephanie threw a pillow at my head.

I answered by grabbing her hips and slipping inside.

“Mmm,” she moaned, falling back onto the mattress, ecstasy on her face, hair splayed out in all directions.

Even though she’d said we were completely green lighted for sex I couldn’t help being more gentle than usual. I got her to the climax slowly, reveling in the look on her face as she came, sending out a million silent thank yous to the universe that she was mine forever. We fell asleep tangled up in one another, her cheek against my chest, my hand on her stomach.

When the phone rang I was dreaming and in my dream I was in a dark cave.

Fear was everywhere and my hands clutched something I’d thought was a weapon. Until I looked down and realized it was nothing but a frayed piece of rope. I threw it down in disgust and stared ahead, squinting, trying desperately to see, but there was very little light.

“What’s up there, up ahead of us?” I asked because somehow I knew I wasn’t in there alone.

“Nothing as terrible as what’s behind us,” my companion growled and took the lead. “Come on. We have to keep looking.”

“Will we find him?”

“We have to.”

“We’ll fight for him.”

“Of course.” Then my friend let out a defeated sigh. “We have no weapons.”

I looked down at my empty hands. I closed them into fists and then opened them again.

“Yes we do.”

It took a few rings for me to realize that the noise was coming from my phone. And that my phone was in some unknown place inside the apartment. Stephanie was still sound asleep so I leapt out of bed, trying to get to it before it woke her. As I hunted for the source of the sound I hoped it was just a random drunk dial. After all, anyone who called at this hour wouldn’t have anything nice to say.

The sight of my brother’s phone number was a knife of anxiety right in my gut.

“Cord. Is Creed okay?”

“Yeah.”

“The girls? Saylor? Deck?”

“They’re all fine, Chase.”

I exhaled with relief and sank into the nearest chair.

“Who’s not fine then?”

My brother took a deep breath. Whatever it was the words weren’t coming easy to him. “She’s dead. He didn’t kill her but you know he still killed her.”

I swallowed. I had to close my eyes because the room had suddenly begun to spin. I didn’t ask him who he was talking about. I didn’t need to.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN


CORD



“I hate this,” she said miserably.

“I know.”

“And I hate to think of you going down there.”

“I know.”

Creed had said he’d be here in half an hour to pick me up. That gave me time for a shower but not much else. I toweled off and pulled on a pair of jeans while Saylor sat on the edge of our bed and watched me with sadness.

“Oh god Cord, I’m so sorry.”

I leaned on the sink, facing away from her. I didn’t want her to see my face right now. It didn’t matter that Maggie Gentry was never a true mother in any way that counted. It didn’t matter that she’d let drugs and her piece of shit husband wreck her inside and out. She was the only mother I was going to have in this lifetime and she’d descended into nothing but a pitiable object long before the end came for her.

“Cord.” Saylor had crept behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist and kissing my back.

I turned around and buried my face in her neck, inhaling warmth and love as she cradled my head. She hadn’t argued with me when I told her the boys and I needed to drive down there and that no one else other than the three of us brothers were included. After all, there would be no touching service to honor a beloved mother and grandmother. The woman who’d choked on her own vomit and died alone on a dirty bathroom floor was none of those things.